Defamiliarization and Shelly
Language and Literature http://lal.sagepub.com/
Foregrounding and the sublime: Shelley in Chamonix
David S. Miall Language and Literature 2007 16: 155 DOI: 10.1177/0963947007075982 The online version of this article can be found at: http://lal.sagepub.com/content/16/2/155
Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of:
Poetics and Linguistics Association
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FOREGROUNDING AND THE SUBLIME
A RTICLE
155
Foregrounding and the sublime: Shelley in Chamonix
David S. Miall, University of Alberta, Canada Abstract
Commentators have spoken of the moment of sublime experience as one of amazement, of being overwhelmed by the strikingness of the sublime appearance. The sublime, in other words, is an effect of defamiliarization. If a poet is to embody the sublime experience in language (i.e., in the poetic sublime), we would expect the resources of linguistic foregrounding to be central to this effort. The defamiliarizing moment is, of course, central to the modern conception of the response to foregrounding. It is thus also at the heart of response to the sublime. In this article I consider the resources of foregrounding called upon by Shelley in his letter from Chamonix and his poem ‘Mont Blanc’, and suggest that these enable us as readers to enact his experience through striking figurative, phonetic, and metrical features. I focus on four features: the sense of defamiliarization; disrupted or unusual syntax; the senses being under pressure; and figures that suggest a merging of
Foregrounding and the sublime: Shelley in Chamonix
David S. Miall Language and Literature 2007 16: 155 DOI: 10.1177/0963947007075982 The online version of this article can be found at: http://lal.sagepub.com/content/16/2/155
Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com On behalf of:
Poetics and Linguistics Association
Additional services and information for Language and Literature can be found at: Email Alerts: http://lal.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://lal.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://lal.sagepub.com/content/16/2/155.refs.html
>> Version of Record - Apr 26, 2007 What is This?
Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012
FOREGROUNDING AND THE SUBLIME
A RTICLE
155
Foregrounding and the sublime: Shelley in Chamonix
David S. Miall, University of Alberta, Canada Abstract
Commentators have spoken of the moment of sublime experience as one of amazement, of being overwhelmed by the strikingness of the sublime appearance. The sublime, in other words, is an effect of defamiliarization. If a poet is to embody the sublime experience in language (i.e., in the poetic sublime), we would expect the resources of linguistic foregrounding to be central to this effort. The defamiliarizing moment is, of course, central to the modern conception of the response to foregrounding. It is thus also at the heart of response to the sublime. In this article I consider the resources of foregrounding called upon by Shelley in his letter from Chamonix and his poem ‘Mont Blanc’, and suggest that these enable us as readers to enact his experience through striking figurative, phonetic, and metrical features. I focus on four features: the sense of defamiliarization; disrupted or unusual syntax; the senses being under pressure; and figures that suggest a merging of
Citations: http://lal.sagepub.com/content/16/2/155.refs.html >> Version of Record - Apr 26, 2007 What is This? Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012 FOREGROUNDING AND THE SUBLIME Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012 FOREGROUNDING AND THE SUBLIME Language and Literature 2007 16(2) Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012 Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012 FOREGROUNDING AND THE SUBLIME Language and Literature 2007 16(2) Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012 Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012 FOREGROUNDING AND THE SUBLIME Language and Literature 2007 16(2) Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012 Language and Literature 2007 16(2) Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012 Language and Literature 2007 16(2) Downloaded from lal.sagepub.com at Univ of Newcastle upon Tyne on October 13, 2012